[BlindMath] [nfbcs] Science division reach its 2017 STEM scholarship goal

Don Winiecki dwiniecki at boisestate.edu
Wed May 10 13:59:57 UTC 2017 

I absolutely agree we should do what is necessary to remove barriers to access and success in STEM fields for those who wish to pursue that path. 

Data to follow. 

_don

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Don Winiecki, Ed.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Ethics & Morality in Professional Practice
Boise State University, College of Engineering
1910 University Drive, Boise, Idaho 83725-2070 USA
E-mail: dwiniecki at boisestate.edu
Telephone: (+01) 208 426 1899
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~iph

> On May 10, 2017, at 7:46 AM, John G Heim via BlindMath <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Don,
> 
> First of all, William didn't say anything about the value of a liberal arts education. I have a degree in a STEM field and a liberal arts education. Those two things are not mutually exclusive.  Secondly, you've made a lot of unsubstantiated assertions. Where's your data? Nobody is going to dispute that people who major in the Humanities "usually do find employment" but the question is whether they find employment at a rate similar to people who major in STEM fields and if they are as well paid. Is it your assertion that people who major in History, English, and Fine Arts are as likely to find work and are as well paid as those who major in STEM fields?
> 
> I think William probably should apologize for referring to the Humanities as "crap". But there is nothing wrong with encouraging people, especially blind people, to go into STEM fields. There are a lot of jobs and the pay is really good.
> 
> 
>> On 05/09/2017 11:21 PM, Donald Winiecki via BlindMath wrote:
>> William,
>> ​
>> It is the case that pop surveys report exactly what you have found in the
>> two URLs offered.
>> 
>> However, as a scientist you know that the quality of data is essential to
>> producing any real research.
>> 
>> With that in mind, part of the difficulty in tracking employment of
>> graduates per their declared major is that there are often not clear job
>> categories for things like `historian` or `English literature` or `fine
>> arts`.  That said, it is the case that graduates of those major fields of
>> study usually do find employment in the general world of work -- often in
>> careers that are not obviously related to their major field of study.
>> 
>> So asking someone if they have found work in their college major field of
>> study is actually deceiving if one's goal is to tabulate the worth of
>> college major fields of study.  A liberal arts education can actually
>> prepare one for a very wide range of work.  The analytic skills required of
>> an English literature or Creative writing student are very valuable when
>> culling through any large set of unstructured data -- the kind of data we
>> find in careers ranging from Marketing to Human Resources to Government
>> Office work to Paralegal and Law Clerks.  The amazing time-management and
>> task-juggling skills learned by students of Early Childhood Education are
>> very applicable to work in any fast-paced workplace.
>> 
>> When it comes to salary, we could agree that starting salaries for some
>> graduates of STEM fields are higher than those from around campus.
>> However, this is hardly uniform.  For example, a large proportion of
>> mathematics graduates seem to find careers in teaching -- and teaching is
>> not considered to be among the highest paying jobs (and there is a high
>> attrition rate among early career teachers).  In contrast, enrollees and
>> graduates of law schools often studied undergraduate history and
>> philosophy, and depending on one's special focus, a career in law can be
>> very lucrative.
>> 
>> ​I'm sure we can agree that STEM fields are enjoying a `PR boost` at
>> present.  I'm also sure we can agree that it is worthwhile offering support
>> to students pursuing careers they have the aptitude and motivation to
>> pursue.  If you wish to promote STEM studies and careers to blind and
>> visually impaired students then please work with them to bring them into
>> the fold!  That is why I am here in this list, but those aren't the only
>> students who deserve support.
>> 
>> The world is not a zero-sum game.
>> 
>> _don
>> 
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> Don Winiecki, Ed.D., Ph.D.
>> *Professor of Ethics & Morality in Professional Practice*
>> Boise State University, College of Engineering
>> 1910 University Drive, Mail Stop 2070
>> Boise, Idaho 83725-2070 USA
>> E-mail: dwiniecki at boisestate.edu
>> Telephone: (+01) 208 426 1899
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~d
>> ​
>> 
>> On Tue, May 9, 2017 at 9:39 PM, William Grussenmeyer <wdg31415 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> There are plenty of news stories covering research studies showing
>>> that STEM fields have lower unemployment rates and moreover have
>>> higher pay rates, especially graduate students.
>>> 
>>> http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2015/03/employment-picture
>>> -improving-stem-majors
>>> 
>>> https://www.asme.org/career-education/articles/early-career-
>>> engineers/engineering-salaries-on-the-rise
>>> 
>>> and look at this news story showing the top 25 highest unemployment
>>> rates for majors:
>>> College majors with the highest unemployment
>>> 1. Clinical psychology 19.5%
>>> 2. Miscellaneous fine arts 16.2%
>>> 3. United States history 15.1%
>>> 4. Library science 15.0%
>>> 5. (tie) Military technologies; educational psychology 10.9%
>>> 6. Architecture 10.6%
>>> 7. Industrial & organizational psychology 10.4%
>>> 8. Miscellaneous psychology 10.3%
>>> 9. Linguistics & comparative literature 10.2%
>>> 10. (tie) Visual & performing arts; engineering & industrial management
>>> 9.2%
>>> 11. Engineering & industrial management 9.2%
>>> 12. Social psychology 8.8%
>>> 13. International business 8.5%
>>> 14. Humanities 8.4%
>>> 15. General social sciences 8.2%
>>> 16. Commercial art & graphic design 8.1%
>>> 17. Studio art 8.0%
>>> 18. Pre-law & legal studies 7.9%
>>> 19. Materials engineering and materials science and composition &
>>> speech (tie) 7.7%
>>> 20. Liberal arts 7.6%
>>> 21. (tie) Fine arts and genetics 7.4%
>>> 22. Film video & photography arts and cosmetology services & culinary
>>> arts (tie) 7.3%
>>> 23. Philosophy & religious studies and neuroscience (tie) 7.2%
>>> 24. Biochemical sciences 7.1%
>>> 25. (tie) Journali
>>> 
>>> taken from
>>> http://www.cbsnews.com/news/25-college-majors-with-the-highe
>>> st-unemployment-rates/
>>> 
>>> and check out this news story.  There are 10 times more tech jobs than
>>> computing majors last year:
>>> 
>>> You Probably Should Have Majored in Computer Science
>>> 
>>> Quartz, March 10
>>> 
>>> If you’re looking for a college major that gives you a great future
>>> job outlook, computer science is still one of the most attractive
>>> options available. There are almost 10 times more U.S. computing jobs
>>> open right now than there were students who graduated with computer
>>> science degrees in 2015. That year, the most recent for which the
>>> National Center for Education Statistics has collected data, about
>>> 60,000 students graduated from U.S. institutions with bachelor degrees
>>> in computer and information services. There are about 530,000
>>> computing jobs currently open, according to Code.org, which used data
>>> from business research association The Conference Board.
>>> 
>>> taken from:
>>> https://qz.com/929275/you-probably-should-have-majored-in-
>>> computer-science/
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On 5/9/17, Don Winiecki <dwiniecki at boisestate.edu> wrote:
>>>> Hi William,
>>>> 
>>>> I am a sociologist who teaches in a College of Engineering.  My role is
>>> to
>>>> promote inclusion, diversity and social-justice in engineering.  We have
>>>> lots of social science data providing substantive evidence that students
>>> in
>>>> STEM fields who are not part of the demographic majority (read, white
>>> males)
>>>> face substantive disadvantages leveraged by members of the majority
>>>> demographic.
>>>> 
>>>> I am a Principal Investigator on an NSF funded project to `Revolutionize
>>>> Engineering Departments` in the directions noted above -- initially
>>> focusing
>>>> on Computer Science.    NSF is obviously strongly in favor of attempting
>>> to
>>>> reverse the damages to STEM fields by biases of the demographic majority
>>> in
>>>> society and in that discipline.
>>>> 
>>>> The field of Computer Science is now (finally) waking up to the fact that
>>>> their innovations reflect the same biases that plague society in general.
>>>> The same Computer Scientists who are researching `algorithmic bias` and
>>> bias
>>>> in machine learning technologies are also strong proponents of involving
>>>> members of the social sciences and the humanities in their research, in
>>>> order to take advantage of the real knowledge of social problems they
>>> have
>>>> discovered and documented over several centuries.  I myself am working
>>> with
>>>> one of our Data Scientists at Boise State University to write a proposal
>>> for
>>>> funding combined social science and data science research to produce and
>>>> prototype use of precision agriculture tools.
>>>> 
>>>> To be honest, I find your comment to reflect some of the problems that I
>>> and
>>>> others are attempting to address in the sciences -- and in Computer
>>> Science
>>>> in particular.  I hope you come to realize the influence you have on
>>> others
>>>> in your field and begin to see the value of working to foster inclusive
>>>> transdisciplinary partnerships across all the sciences, arts and
>>>> humanities.
>>>> 
>>>> Incidentally, I taught myself FORTRAN, C and Lisp and use them when
>>>> appropriate in my own activities.  Computer Science is not just for
>>> computer
>>>> scientists.
>>>> 
>>>> PS: If you'd like to provide data to support your claim that humanities
>>> and
>>>> social science graduates are unemployed at a rate higher than in the
>>>> sciences, I'd be happy to see it.  My own reviews of those data show that
>>>> engineering graduates are not employed at higher rates than other majors,
>>>> and in fact in many engineering fields, job satisfaction drops
>>> precipitously
>>>> with time.  Research on that latter phenomenon indicates that older
>>> workers
>>>> are often seen as a liability in `high tech` and despite the fact that
>>> they
>>>> were once the developers (perhaps now the maintainers) of our
>>> technological
>>>> infrastructure, they report they are treated poorly in comparison to
>>> those
>>>> in the youthful vanguard -- they feel the industry has cast them aside.
>>>> 
>>>> Best wishes,
>>>> 
>>>> _don
>>>> 
>>>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>>> Don Winiecki, Ed.D., Ph.D.
>>>> Professor of Ethics & Morality in Professional Practice
>>>> Boise State University, College of Engineering
>>>> 1910 University Drive, Boise, Idaho 83725-2070 USA
>>>> E-mail: dwiniecki at boisestate.edu
>>>> Telephone: (+01) 208 426 1899
>>>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ipa
>>>> 
>>>>> On May 9, 2017, at 7:05 PM, William Grussenmeyer via BlindMath
>>>>> <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Good.  I am tired of seeing all those scholarships going to people in
>>>>> majors like English, social work, and other humanities crap where they
>>>>> will never find a job.
>>>>> 
>>>>>> On 5/9/17, John Miller via nfbcs <nfbcs at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>>>> Hello,
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Thank you to everyone who has been a part of our successful effort to
>>>>>> collect donations for a 2017 NFB Science, Technology Engineering, and
>>>>>> Mathematics (STEM) Scholarship.
>>>>>> The STEM scholarship will be awarded in the amount of $3000 to a worthy
>>>>>> blind student at the 2017 NFB convention.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> We have made significant progress towards raising funds for a 2018 STEM
>>>>>> scholarship as well.
>>>>>> I want to let you know that we started the 2017 fundraising effort with
>>>>>> $940
>>>>>> in the scholarship fund in July 2016.
>>>>>> At this time we have raised $1565 towards a 2018 STEM scholarship.
>>>>>> I feel confident that working together we can again award the STEM
>>>>>> scholarship in 2018.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> We know that blind professionals and students are succeeding in
>>> biology,
>>>>>> chemestry, and natural science.
>>>>>> We know that blind individuals are performing at a high level in
>>>>>> mathematics, physics, engineering, and related fields.
>>>>>> Donations came from blind individuals working in these fields, our
>>>>>> friends,
>>>>>> and our family.
>>>>>> This year one corporate donation came from E.A.S.Y. LLC,
>>>>>> www.easytactilegraphics.com<http://www.easytactilegraphics.com>, an
>>>>>> organization committed to blind individuals creating technical drawings
>>>>>> independently.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I am so grateful to be part of an organization that has a belief in the
>>>>>> abilities of blind people and a commitment to helping the next
>>> generation
>>>>>> of
>>>>>> blind students.
>>>>>> I am also so thankful to those who patiently listened to my pitch for
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> scholarship and then generously made it happen.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Very Best,
>>>>>> John Miller, President
>>>>>> Science and Engineering Division
>>>>>> of the National Federation of the Blind
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> nfbcs mailing list
>>>>>> nfbcs at nfbnet.org
>>>>>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
>>>>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>>>>>> nfbcs:
>>>>>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/wdg31415%
>>> 40gmail.com
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> --
>>>>> William Grussenmeyer
>>>>> PhD Student, Computer Science
>>>>> University of Nevada, Reno
>>>>> NSF Fellow
>>>>> 
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>>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> William Grussenmeyer
>>> PhD Student, Computer Science
>>> University of Nevada, Reno
>>> NSF Fellow
>>> 
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> 
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